398 THE VEGETABLE GARDEN 



a green salad, like the Early Simpson Lettuce, and sometimes the 

 first leaves are plucked off very early, with the view of making 

 a later gathering of the new leaves which are to follow, or of 

 the sprouts or shoots which grow from the axils. From this it 

 derives its name of "Gathering Lettuce." 



New Egyptian Sprouting Lettuce ( White-seeded}. Resembles 

 the American Curled Lettuce, but is lighter in colour, and the 

 leaves are longer and less crimped. It is remarkable for the 

 abundance of its shoots. These shoots are composed of only a 

 few long narrow leaves, and are very like the Cutting Lettuces 

 raised on hot-beds. Their use is the same. 



Oak-leaved Cutting Lettuce. The plant forms a tallish rosette, 

 tufty and rather full in the centre, 12 to 14 in. broad, composed 

 of very numerous leaves, which are rather long, light green in 

 colour, divided into rounded lobes, sinuated, and broader and far 

 less undulated than those of the Black-seeded Cutting Lettuce. 

 This variety is hardy and bears the winter well. It grows very 

 well again after being cut. Seed black. 



A variety named Artichoke-leaved Cos Lettuce is sometimes 

 grown. This is very like the Oak-leaved variety, differing from 

 it chiefly in the brown tint of its leaves. 



Endive-leaved Cutting Lettuce. Leaves spreading in a rosette, 

 light-coloured, curled and crisped like those of the Small Green 

 Curled Winter Endive. This variety is tender to eat, very hardy, 

 and very good for cutting. It bears the winter well. The seed is 

 black, and is the smallest of all kinds of Lettuce seed. 



There is another variety which has a fuller heart, but the leaves 

 are not so much curled, and are of a light grayish or silver hue. It 

 is named the English Endive-leaved Cutting Lettuce. 



There is an American variety of Cutting Lettuce which is very 

 distinct from any of the preceding kinds, named the Boston Curled 

 Lettuce. The leaves of this variety are of a light green colour, 

 spreading into a rosette, and are cut, curled, and puckered at the 

 edges like the leaves of a Curled Endive. It is a summer Lettuce 

 and has black seed. 



ASPARAGUS LETTUCE 



Lactuca angustana, Hort. 



Leaves long, very narrow, lanceolate, never forming a head. The 

 plant soon runs to seed, and it is the thick swollen stems that are 

 used as a table vegetable, gathered when they are about a foot 

 high. This plant is very distinct, and resembles no other Cos 

 Lettuce. The Lactuca cracoviensis, Hort., is a form of the Asparagus 

 Lettuce with reddish stems and bronzy leaves. It is grown and 

 used in the same way as the common form. Notwithstanding their 



